“How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!” To allow both MWC staff and attendees to properly plan for the event, MWC has chosen to postpone Assembly 17 until 2022. Pray for wisdom as the Assembly planning teams adjust to the new date. Please continue to pray for the healing of the world, and for the Assembly.
Prayers of Gratitude and Intercession
MWC Prayer Network: Click here for more information about what the Prayer Network is and how to sign up. If you would like to share a prayer with us, please write to prayers@mwc-cmm.org.
09 October 2020
May God grant us resilience to be good neighbours and to show grace to others as the pandemic stretches on.
May God grant governments wisdom to respond to citizens needs and to make procurement decisions as vaccines become ready for use.
May we stand in solidarity with each other around the world as we grieve losses, economic and personal.
Pray for those who respond to the pandemic with violence and greed. May God rattle their understanding and may the Holy Spirit turn their hearts to compassion and generosity. May anger at differences – racial, religious, economic – turn into curiosity to learn. May the power of Jesus bring healing to the wounds that drive their violence.
Pray for food supply lines to be efficient and equitable. The combination of factors like poor harvests impacted by climate combined and disruptions to production, transportation and economic activity due to the pandemic could cause widespread hunger in some regions. Pray for a global effort to make food available to all populations.
21 September 2020
Praise God for the generosity of those who gave to the Global Church Sharing Fund COVID-19 response. May God multiply these gifts to make a lasting impact on 27 communities whose proposals have been approved. May the good news accompany the gifts of food and supplies. May the church’s relief efforts improve the physical situations of their neighbours and may the Holy Spirit also bring spiritual transformation. Praise God for the dedicated work of the volunteers on the MWC task force overseeing the COVID-19 response.
| Learn more about the GCSF COVID-19 response here |
21 September 2020
Praise God for 100 years of relief and development around the world in the name of Christ through Mennonite Central Committee. Pray for renewal vision to respond creatively to the challenges of the future in a spirit of humility, and always driven by the love of Christ.
21 September 2020
Pray for peace in Colombia. Evangelical churches in parts of Colombia are suffering from armed conflict, violation of human rights, recruitment of minors in paramilitary forces and restrictions on their ability to gather for worship. In July, one pastor had to relocate after his teenaged daughters were threatened by paramilitaries. Justapaz of Iglesia Cristiana Menonita de Colombia (IMCOL) stands in solidarity with these churches and calls for prayer.
21 September 2020
Pray for communities who are suffering religious persecution, especially in India, Pakistan, Vietnam and China. May God strengthen and sustain their faith and give them creativity to peacefully subvert violence.
21 September 2020
Give us the power
God,
Give us the power to trust each other
and to choose the sustainable way
that frees your creation from distress.
Give us the power to share knowledge
and to seek for sustainable solutions
that allow future generations to live on
Give us the power to cooperate
to take decisions and actions
that bear fruit sustainably.
Give us the power
through your Holy Spirit
You who saw that it was good.
On the day after tomorrow as in the beginning.
For your kingdom come
and your glory shine
for ever.
Amen
—This prayer is taken from the book Dancing with the Golden Frog: Global Warming and the Lord’s Prayer, by Herman Heijn, pastor at Doopsgezinde Gemeente Haarlem, Netherlands. Submitted by Creation Care Task Force member Rebecca Froese, a member of Mennonite Church Hamburg-Altona, Germany.
| Christians across the world are walking in spirit toward care for creation. This #SeasonofCreation celebration takes place 1 September to 4 October 2020. |
10 September 2020
Humility
God of all the earth –
Take us outside to your holy places. Take us out beyond our walls, out where we can see our neighbours, out past the garden with its ripe tomatoes and fat watermelons. Out where flowers bloom yellow and pink and sway in the wind. Out to the soil we came from and the place where we no longer have words for what we see but can only say how small we are.
There – out there – bend down. Make mud with your spit; smear it on our eyes.
And when the clay cakes and cracks and we turn our faces to your vast world, may we see grace, not despair, and a harvest so plentiful it distresses us.
This prayer by Jennifer Schrock is based on an outdoor worship service that took place at Berkey Avenue Mennonite Fellowship, Goshen, Indiana, USA. Jennifer Schrock serves on MWC’s Creation Care Task Force.
|
Christians across the world are walking in spirit toward care for creation. This #SeasonofCreation celebration takes place 1 September to 4 October 2020. |
#SeasonofCreation
#TiempodelaCreación
#TempsdelaCréation
#TempodaCriação
31 August 2020
Lord of the wind and the rain, your creation is both calm and storm. We pray for those who fall in the path of hurricanes, typhoons, earthquakes and tornadoes. May the grieving sense the nearness of your comforting Spirit. May your church be the hands and feet who rebuild and reassure those who experienced loss.
28 August 2020
Zimbabwe is facing the COVID-19 pandemic health crisis along with the rest of the world, but compounded with an unstable political situation, 90% unemployment, an underfunded health system, hyperinflation and food security crisis. Pray for Catholic leaders who have made a statement to the government to uphold the gospel tenets of human dignity and the common good. Pray that the people of Zimbabwe would treat each other with respect across political divisions as they advocate for justice for all. Praise God for the Christian brothers and sisters – including the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe – who are speaking with one voice during a critical time.
19 August 2020
Praise God for the celebration of baptism as a practice of discipleship in Mennonite, Lutheran and Catholic churches. The final report on the Lutheran-Mennonite-Roman Catholic Trilateral Conversation (on baptism) has been published. Praise God for the trust, patience and receptivity of the leaders who participated in this dialogue between world communions. Pray that studying the report may promote better mutual understanding between communions and lead to greater faithfulness to Jesus Christ. May MWC churches be attentive to the “gifts received” and “challenges accepted.”
17 August 2020
Pray for more open doors to preach the gospel, especially in regions where it is not well known. Pray for labourers to partake in the kingdom work. Intercede for all our ministers in their preaching and teaching responsibilities. Some of our youths completed high school but they can’t enter university due to the cost of tuition fees; please pray for God’s provision.
—Adriano Mbackeh, member of Mennonite Church West Africa, The Gambia
Read more:
Year-old West African church plants three others
Updated 26 August 2020: country corrected
17 August 2020
We pray that God will protect our lives and give wisdom to the authorities. May they respond appropriately and show mercy toward people so that the possible consequences of the virus can be prevented and mitigated.
Some days we feel so impotent, frustrated and afraid. We pray that God will help us manage our emotions in a healthy way and also that we may find joy in the midst of the uncertainty.
We pray that God will help us to continue building deep relationships in spite of social distancing.
We pray that you may sense the constant love of the Lord in all aspects of your lives.
—Diana Cruz and Felipe Preciado, La Casa Grande FIFATA, Benin (Iglesia Cristiana Menonita de Colombia [IMCOL])
17 August 2020
The global gathering of Anabaptists at MWC Assemblies is in God’s hands. Preparations are extra challenging: fundraising; logistics of transportation, accommodation, venues, program, food; obtaining visas – all are complicated by uncertainty about what regulations may be in place one year from now. Pray for wisdom and discernment for those who are making decisions about the event. The Executive Committee will decide at their 17-18 August 2020 meeting.
07 August 2020
“Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me, for in you I take refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.” (Psalm 57:1)
Seventeen people are confirmed dead with more than 75 feared trapped as rows of houses sank into the ground as a result of heavy rains on the Pettimudi tea estate in Munnar,Kerala, India. Gilgal Mission Trust, a Mennonite World Conference member church, has a small congregation in this village. News reports indicate that a church is buried under the mud. Ten church members are among the missing.
MWC calls for the global community of believers to stand in solidarity by praying for missing people to be rescued and for rains to stop so further damage can be avoided.
07 August 2020
“All my bones shall say, ‘O Lord, who is like you? You deliver the weak from those too strong for them, the weak and needy from those who despoil them.’” (Psalm 35:10)
Lord, we take hope in your strength and salvation.
04 August 2020
Praise God for the evangelistic fervour and faithfulness of our brothers and sisters in Africa. With economic challenges, severe climate events and diseases like malaria compounding the threat of COVID-19, they continue to worship God and serve their neighbours with what means they have, sharing the gospel in word and deed.
13 July 2020
We pray for everyone who has been affected by Covid-19. For those who have died; for those who have been ill; for the family members that this has affected; for those whose jobs and livelihoods have been affected by the economic downturn that this pandemic has caused; for all of us as our lives and our “normals” have changed.
07 July 2020
Ukraine (Association of Mennonite Brethren Churches in Ukraine – AMBCU): Pray for this emerging Mennonite Brethren conference. Pray for the churches meeting in groups of 10 due to quarantine restrictions, and for the small groups doing Bible studies and worship. The churches are also meeting on Zoom. Pray for those that are suffering from the virus. Though there are few cases in that area of Ukraine, people suffer economically and the churches are distributing food.
23 June 2020
At the burning bush, Moses learned that God is attentive to circumstances of the oppressed: “I have observed the misery of my people.... I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters…. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them.” (Exodus 3:7-8a, NRSV)
God of the Exodus is paying attention to world events today. In response to yet another police killing of an unarmed black man in the USA, protests have broken out in North American cities and elsewhere in the world. Looting and vandalism have occurred. Police in the USA have fired rubber bullets and tear gas even upon journalists reporting about the protests.
We lament systemic racism that leads to killings and daily indignities for people of colour. We grieve the violent actions by both protesters and law enforcement. We confess the lack of equity and justice that at times from characterizes our own responses. We acknowledge the long, intercontinental roots of racism that include complicity in the slave trade.
We reaffirm the following Mennonite World Conference Shared Convictions: “As a world-wide community of faith and life we transcend boundaries of nationality, race, class, gender and language... The Spirit of Jesus empowers us to trust God in all areas of life so we become peacemakers who renounce violence, love our enemies [and] seek justice...”
Creator God, reach into our hearts and our troubled world to bring repentance and right relationships!
02 June 2020
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